Experimental audiology research (EAR) methods

Learning Outcomes

Learning Outcomes

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Critically evaluate the trends in the results of a simple experimental study within the context of the statistical analyses undertaken and the strengths and weaknesses of the study design
• Select and apply the appropriate methods, including statistical, to analyse data from a simple experimental study, and interpret and present/report the findings appropriately

• W1 Introduction

Populations, samples and estimation; chance and bias; independent, dependent and extraneous/confounding variables; hypotheses; general sources of bias; BS vs. WS designs

• W2 Introduction to the assignment

The assignment and the plan; variables and intro to distributions

• W3 Distributions

Histograms (age and SRT); axes/labels; bins; intro to descriptive stats

• W4 Descriptive stats

Box plots and more on descriptive stats; outliers; emerging trends

• W5 Normally distributed?

Bringing together judgement of normality, the Shapiro-Wilk test and introduction to p

• W6 Trends in the data

Column vs line graphs; what makes a good/bad graph; mean differences and directions

• W7 Checking out the trends: t-test

Paired vs independent samples; reminder about tails; thinking about t-tests; checking assumptions (normal distribution, homogeneity of variance); non-parametric alternatives

• W8&9 Checking out the trends: ANOVA

Types; factors and levels; checking assumptions (e.g. sphericity); interactions; problem of multiple comparisons and Bonferroni correction

• W10 Power!

Confidence interval on mean difference; how big could the effect be; what could we have missed; revisiting the sample size

• W11 Discussion & conclusion

What to cover; revisiting estimation and bias; critical thinking; conclusions

• W12 Open

The things you want to go over

• Additional Lab Searching for literature

Picking a question; using web of Science: casting a wide net, narrowing down, cited reference search

• Throughout

Good scientific/ethical practice

The teaching and learning methods will include:

> W1. Introductory lecture, where we'll cover the background concepts and issues.

> W2-12. In week 2, you will be given the assignment and all associated files (including the data file), which we’ll work through together across the following weeks. Specifically, you will be given a description of a study and the data; the assignment will be to write the Results chapter and some of the Discussion chapter of a scientific report on the study. You will be given a template for that, indicating the sorts of issues to consider in each sub-section. The weekly activities each week will be structured to step-by-step guide them through writing it. There will be weekly pre-recorded lectures (up to 60 min) ahead of tutorials explaining the relevant concepts. There will also be pre-recorded general instructional videos on use of Excel and stats software. The tutorials will involve you sharing with each other your progress, what you have and haven’t understand, how you got the graphs/results from the software or what you’re struggling with, the problems you’ve been having etc, and then we’ll discuss those together.

> One (45-min) computer lab providing an introduction to literature searching using Web of Science.

> Drop-in sessions with the module lead.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.